Motiva Enterprises’ Texas oil refinery shutdown due to Harvey

19.6% of the U.S. oil refinery halted by tropical storm Harvey has halted, as of Tuesday.

In a significant blow to U.S. oil production, the largest crude oil refinery in the country was forced to shutdown on Tuesday night due to flooding threats from tropical storm Harvey. The plant’s oil output was 603,000 barrel-per-day.

As per Motiva Enterprises, the refinery’s owner, the plant was operating at 60% capacity on Tuesday morning and afternoon and that was brought down to 40% in the evening.

As per Genscape, an energy industry intelligence service, the refinery was using its safety flare system on Tuesday night which indicates the shutdown of a unit/units at the refinery.

The flare has triggered a flood of speculative messages on social media that the refinery was on fire.

Motiva has stated there was no fire at its refinery on Tuesday.

As a result of this shutdown, 19.6% equivalent to 3.65 million bpd of U.S. refining capacity has been shutdown by Tropical Storm Harvey.